Raise your hand if you, or someone you know, tends to always be pushing themselves to the limit. The self-proclaimed hard charger! No rest days is your motto in life.
I’m not going to get up on my soapbox and tell you to stop or even slow down. I will only share that eventually, everyone hits a limit and for how great it feels now to be pushing, the other side feels equally bad.
How do you scratch the itch to train and avoid going overboard week after week? I call them grinders. Workouts with particular movements that will make you work, but at the same time slow you down enough to stay out of the red zone of intensity. Put them into conditioning workouts in place of your standard burpees, box jumps, barbell cycling, and instead have a couple of movements that bring the speed down a bit.
Here are some I like to use:
1. Farmer Carry – a distance or timed hold inside of a longer amrap is a great way to bring the intensity down and amplify the grip and midline endurance.
2. Renegade Rows – this movement has a slow cycle time and combines multiple planes of movement.
3. Wall Walks – under fatigue this one is one of the best bodyweight total body strengtheners I’ve found and will slow down even the most fit individuals so they avoid the threshold red zone.
4. Dumbbell Burpee Box Step Up – long cycle time, push, hip flexion, single leg knee flexion and scapular endurance…the grinder movement that hits it all.
Don’t forget to go slow to grow!
Written by: Cory Buerck